


The Impossible

by Eccentric_Grace



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Bad at tagging, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Natural Disaster, Pepper gets injured, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Somewhat-graphic description of violence, Spider-Son and IRON MOM, Tony doesn’t die, basically the plot of The Impossible but with marvel, good ending, injuries, its pepper guys she’s iron mom, tsunami
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:14:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23186851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eccentric_Grace/pseuds/Eccentric_Grace
Summary: Peter Parker and the Stark family really deserve a vacation.When a tsunami ruins that vacation, will they manage to remain strong with no resources?
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Pepper Potts, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 7
Kudos: 109





	The Impossible

**Author's Note:**

> ⚠️Trigger Warning for mildly graphic descriptions of injuries and such⚠️
> 
> uh yeah enjoy this is kinda old but like I’ll post it I guess

It had taken far too long for Tony to become comfortable enough to ditch his technology when leaving the house. To not take the Iron Man suit.

He shouldn't have made the mistake to not bring the suit on vacation.

They had gone to Thailand for a Christmas vacation. 

More specifically, Peter, Tony, Morgan and Pepper went on vacation. May was going to come a few days later than everybody else in order to finish her shifts at work.

So they were on vacation. It was a foreign place to Peter and Morgan, and they were running around everywhere with grins on their faces. It was apparent to both Tony and Pepper that they were having a blast.

They had never seen it coming.

It started slowly.

Heavy wind, swirling through at an odd time. Pages out of Pepper's book fly out. The water in the pool of the resort sways. Peter shivers.

Something is very, very wrong.

"Tony...?" He starts in a fearful voice.

When Tony heard that voice—The small one Peter had, reserved for a powerful fear that resonated right in Tony's soul—he thought the worst. Chitauri. Thanos. Dust.

But then he saw it. It seemed to be just as bad.

A mountain of water. Large, looming and devastatingly dangerous. The ground shakes. People screamed. The water starts to move. Faster and faster, crashing into buildings.

Tony seems to sprint forward, grabbing for Morgan and going to pull her out of the water. "PETER!"

Peter widens his eyes and turns to the pool, diving into the water.

The water crashes into the resort. Peter has never felt pain like this before. He seemed to be reaching for air, kicking his arms and legs desperately against the thrashing waves. His lungs fought to keep their own oxygen, and they burned more like fire than water.

Just as it seems he's free, as he rises above the water and takes in a sharp gasp for air, the water covers him again.

He feels his arms and legs be scraped from various objects. Somewhere he knows it's supposed to hurt, especially when salt water is stinging the wounds. But right now all he feels in the adrenaline pumping through his veins and the desperate need to stay alive through this torture.

The water pours out over buildings, and Peter is swimming above it now, just trying to stay afloat. 

“MORGAN!" He screams. "TONY!"

He hears shrieks and screams of all kind, each one mimicking something much stronger than terror.

"PEPPER!" He keeps screaming. Tears are falling down his face, he can't decide where they're from. It's either from the pain or trauma, but at this point it could be both.

He can't see anybody in the murky brown water. He sees a lot of debris. Lots of fallen trees, some cars, small things that have lost hope such as a child's shoe and a memory photo book. Peter doesn't have the time to mourn over these items. He's looking for survivors. He's looking for Morgan and Pepper. He's looking for Tony. 

He's looking for his family.

There is nobody to be seen.

Peter keeps going, trying to keep up with the current. It's not too difficult because of his strength, but he's injured and his muscles ache. "TONY!"

Through the rushing water and the buzzing danger in his head, he hears somebody call back to him.  
"PETER?!"

Peter frantically looked around for Pepper's voice. He spots her flailing to stay above the water. "PEPPER!" He shouts, trying to move towards her.

Pepper meets his eyes and starts swimming as much as she can against the current to get to Peter. "PETER, STAY THERE!"

She seems so far away. Too far. Just as he's about to keep moving towards her, a stone of doom drops in the pit of his stomach.

He hears the water first. Large. Looming. Impeccably and impossibly dangerous. Fear strikes through his bones. Slowly, he turns to face the beach.

As he thought, another wave of water was heading towards them. His eyes widen. Pepper keeps shouting at him, telling him to get under the water. As fast as he can, he gasps in a breath and pulls himself under just as the water shoves itself at them in full force.

Michelle Jones read him once that time went fast for those who were scared. As he's violently thrown around in the water, scraping his skin against branches and hit with metal and all sorts of other debris, he agrees with this particular quote. 

Time moved so fast. And he was so, so scared.

When it was over, he pushed himself back up to the surface, his limbs shaking with fear, exhaustion, and everything in between.

They both cling to debris that float in the water, swimming desperately as they shout each others names again. 

There still isn't any sign of Tony or Morgan, but they are forced not to worry about it.

Instead they worry about survival. 

The numbness and burn of their limbs as they fight through the water. Finally, they're able to cling to the same tree. They hug so tightly, and they're both crying. Peter cannot be strong right now, but he has to be to live.

Pepper pulls Peter to her side. "It's okay," she says with a weak cough. 

"It's okay."

Peter doesn't agree with this, but instead of arguing, he simply sniffles. He knows Pepper is just trying to keep him, if not the both of them, calm. 

"We need to get out of here."

The treacherous mountain of flooding could come back at any moment. That's what the needle-like feeling in his neck, his head, his whole body, is screaming at him.

Pepper nods and they keep pushing their way past waves of water. Peter sucks in a tight breath as they pass somebody who didn't make it, shutting his eyes for a second and forcing his head to look away.

Pepper, despite not being as strong, takes an arm over Peter's shoulder as they fight past the water, making sure he doesn't go anywhere out of her sight.

Suddenly, Peter points to a tree. “Pepper, we gotta go to the tree."

She nods and they make their way to a fallen tree, both clinging to it and each other. They stay there for a moment, letting their tears mix with the salty ocean water that overpowered their world.

The needle-like feeling numbs Peter again, and he sniffles. "We have to keep moving."

So they do.

They keep walking, and water grows more shallow. Peter sniffles again as he looks around. He can't tell if he's becoming sick or if it's because of the tears.

The place was an absolute wasteland. Trees collapsed onto the ground, death in everything everywhere you looked, cars overturned, and there was just the sense of dread that something indescribably awful happened.

"Where is everybody?" He says in a scared voice.

"I don't know, dear. I don't know. It's okay," Pepper assures him, grunting in pain as she keeps walking through sunken shrubbery and plants.

As they walk into less deep water, Peter is unfortunate to see one of Pepper's injuries.

A large gash, just on the back of her leg. He wish he couldn't see the bone.

"Pepper," Peter says quietly, wishing he had noticed sooner. She hadn't been making any obvious noises of pain that he himself hadn't been making as they walked, so either she didn't notice or was hiding it to keep Peter calm. 

“You're bleeding, Pepper."

It was a bit of an understatement, but Pepper turned anyway to look. As she had turned, Peter noticed another injury. It wasn't as bad as her leg, but still noticeably worse than 'unpleasant', and something that Peter frowned at.

He looked down slightly. "I can't see you like this," He says respectfully, but his voice is shaking. Peter felt so terrible that Pepper had gotten more injuries than he did, especially since he could handle so much more.

Pepper looked down at her torn shirt, grimacing at the sight of her injury, and slowly tied up one sleeve over so that it covered her chest. She looks up at Peter. "It's okay."

Peter looks back up at Pepper with tearful eyes. He sniffles again and his eyes shift behind her. He lets the tears wipe away and he grabs the cleanest and most sturdy looking palm tree leaf, and then leans down to wrap it securely around Pepper's leg. She sucks in a painful breath, but thanks him weakly.

"Look." He points to a few trees that hadn't fallen. "If we go that way, we can climb the tree."

"Okay," Pepper breathes. "Let's go."  
They start trekking through the fallen plants once more, when suddenly there's the sound of crying. It sounds like a small child. Pepper stops. "Do you hear that?"

There was a pull between Peter's heart and brain. Half of him wanted to go and save the child. The kid might have a family, the kid might be hurt. The other half of him knew they'd have a greater chance of survival if they pressed on and ignored the crying. If they got to the tree before the next wave hit.

As usual, his heart won this battle, stabbing the brain with guilt. He looks around for the source of the tears, shouting: "Where are you? Hello?"

It doesn't take too long to find the child. A small boy, trapped in his car seat and blocked by dead leaves that had wrapped themselves around the kid. 

Peter stepped forward quickly, using what was left of his strength to pull the leaves away and take the child out of the seat.

He felt comfort in this—as awful as it was, but this was familiar to him. Saving people. It lightened his chest just slightly, but his chest was still heavier than an osmium elephant, so it didn't do much.

"I've got you," Peter says. "My name is Peter. What's your name?"

"Lucas," the kid sniffles. He couldn't have been older than six. Lucas looks completely and utterly terrified, but safe and not terribly injured other than for a few bruises.

"It's okay, Lucas," Pepper says softly. "It's okay now."

Peter puts Lucas on his back, able to carry him with little difficulty, and then slowly starts his way to the tree.

It takes them a while, but they're able to make it. Peter helps Lucas up onto the tree, and then helps Pepper after some much-needed convincing from Peter. 

Then they sit in the tree.

Pepper is able to get some sleep, and Peter is just praying to anything that she will be okay. That Tony and Morgan are safe and unharmed, and that they'll all be together again soon.  
After all of this thinking, he closes his eyes, and falls asleep.

When he wakes up again, it's because people are calling out to them. Not specifically. More along the lines of: Is anybody there? Hello?

Peter immediately jolts awake, sitting up in a hurry.

"We're here!" He calls out, tiredness still making his head fuzzy. A quick look at Lucas and Pepper tells him that they're both okay, although Pepper's condition seems to be getting worse as time goes on.

He helps get Pepper and Lucas out of the tree, and they get Pepper onto a makeshift stretcher. Time goes fast after that, blurring at the edges of Peter's vision.

They seem to be in a room, now. There isn't a doctor, and Pepper is lying on a large wooden plank. Her lips are chapped, and her breathing is shallow. She must have had worse of an experience in the water than Peter did, because she has triple the cuts and injuries that he had.

"Peter." She speaks softly. Pepper sounds weak. Peter looks over, trying to mask his emotion as much as he can. "Where's Lucas?"

Peter barely heard her with the buzzing in his head. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna leave you alone, I promise—"

“Where is Lucas?" She tried again.

"I—I don't know, Pepper," Peter said, feeling guilty. "He must have left when you were taken into the room."

Pepper shivers, and there are goosebumps on her arms. "It's cold in here, isn't it?"

"It's.. it's not cold." Peter frowns. Pepper nods in response, carrying a pained expression. "Pepper, what's wrong?"

"Antibiotics. Look in the cupboard, there should be some," Pepper says, holding her side.

Peter stands and looks through the cupboards, but all of the medications are written in a different language. He sighs in frustration. "I can't read the labels. They're in Thai, I think."

Peter keeps looking and finds one that works. "I've got one! I've got one."

He rushes over to Pepper's side and helps her down the pill. Pepper lays back down after that, focusing on her breathing. It sounds shallow to Peter, but he holds his tongue.

"What colour is my leg?" Pepper speaks up.

Peter looks over. "Um... red. That means it's good."

"I know."

"How?" Peter asks curiously.

"Tony."

"Oh."

Silence falls between them again.  
They move Pepper into a different room, and onto an actual bed. The place was full of people, all looking extremely sick. The two of them were making quiet conversation when someone across from them started coughing.

The woman was coughing harshly, still laying on the bed. Blood was dribbling down the side of her mouth, and Peter watched in horror as doctors tried to get across the large room. She sounded as if she was choking, and the doctors were too far away. Peter lunges forward and turns the woman on her side, hoping that will help.

As the woman continued coughing, Pepper soon started up as well. Peter looked over quickly. "Pepper?"

Pepper didn't answer, and soon she started coughing up blood too.  
"Pepper! Hey, Pepper—Pepper! Stop, please—!"

Pepper seemed to have finished coughing up blood, as well as bits of plant and who knows what. It was a gruesome sight. She laid back on the bed, catching her breath. Pepper was quite clearly exhausted.

Peter lets her rest for a bit, and just stays at her side until she's well enough to speak again.

"Peter," Pepper rasps out. "Look at how busy this place is. You've got to go do something. Go and help people, you're good at it."

Peter hates how she's correct. People are everywhere, looking for family, water, and just plain hope. People who didn't even have enhanced abilities were currently helping, so it was only fair he did at least a little bit on his part.

"What do I do?" He asks.

"Something," Pepper says tiredly. "Anything."

"Okay," Peter says unsurely. "Will you be alright—?"

"Don't worry about me, Peter." Pepper shifts slightly to look at him better. "I'm not going anywhere."

She gives him a tired smile, and Peter nods at her.

And then he's off.

Peter walks down the halls of the hospital, looking for anybody in distress. He finds a man looking for his son, so he writes the name down and then keeps walking. Calling out the name, he looks. He searches. He reunites one family, and then starts again.

He doesn't know how long he's walking around, and he doesn't know if he's even made an impact. All Peter knows is that he must take it one step at a time. One name. One person. One family. Repeat.

When he looks down at the paper he's been writing names on, there isn't any left. 

All of them have been successfully crossed off. So, he decides to travel back down to Pepper.

When he gets there, the bed is empty.  
Nurses are taking off the sheets, and taking the clipboard off if the side.  
This obviously doesn't sit with Peter.

"Hey! Hey, stop!" Peter runs over. "This is—This is my mom's bed! Stop! This is my mom's bed, you cant— Look, this is her file—"

Peter takes the clipboard desperately, but there's no sign it was ever Pepper's. He knows that he has the right wing. He knows this was where she was.

The only explanation is that—

"Kid! Listen, I can help you, but you need to come with me!" One of the nurses says, trying to calm him down.

Peter lets himself break then. Not fully, but just enough so he can continue on with this awful tragedy. Tears slide down his face, and his chest hurts.

The nurse must have led him to a different area, because when he calms down, she's trying to get an answer from him. "What's your name?"

"Peter Parker," he manages to stutter out. He fiddled with his hands, and he's tapping his toe. Usually he could tell whether something was his enhanced senses or if it was anxiety, but he can't tell right now. His stomach is a swirling mess, and he feels like he could vomit at any second.

"Okay. Where were you staying?" The nurse asks again.

"Um—Um... The Orchid Beach Resort? I-In Khaolak." He remembers that much.

"Was anybody else traveling with you?"

"Um." Peter takes a second to try and calm himself down. The question sent another wave of anxiety in his stomach, making his fingers go cold and numb.

"Peter?"

"Y-Yes, sorry. My dad and little sister." Peter answers without even paying attention to what he's saying.

"Do you know what happened to them?"

The anxiety bubbles over, making his fingers grow cold again. He shakes his head sharply.

The nurse sighs and nods, and then leans over. She sticks a name tag onto Peter's shirt and then stands up, leaving him alone. Peter can't tell if the loneliness is a curse or a blessing.

When he's finally alone, he doesn't quite remember when he started crying. He just knows that his cheeks were wet, and he tasted salt. 

Fortunately, this didn't bother him yet. The insanity of the situation hadn't creeped into his head, and horror's marks hadn't sunken into his soul yet.

Nevertheless, he cries. He's cold. He's alone. He wants something that's too far away. Something that seems it doesn't exist anymore. He can't figure out what the something is, only that it had existed at one point and now he couldn't reach it.

He tries to think about what is truly making him upset, but his head hurts while fighting to put an idea into it. His mind is empty, and it wants to stay that way.

Maybe it's the fact that he lost another, and Tony wouldn't be able to forgive him for it this time. Maybe it's the fact that not even he could forgive himself. Maybe it's karma, and the ways it was terribly unfair for being the fairest entity in the universe.

Peter calms down after what seems like hours, and then he feels someone touch his shoulder. He looks up at them.

It was the nurse from before. "Peter Parker, can you come with me?"

Peter nods quickly and gets up, following them to a desk. He sits down, and a man in front of him sets a handful of things on to the wood. Things such as watches and rings, necklaces and bracelets.

"Does any of this look familiar to you?" He asks.

Peter sniffles and looks down at the items again.

"Take your time, please," the man adds.

Peter's eyes glance across the items. None of them look familiar, but his head is so sickly empty that he can't help but think if one of these items were Pepper's and he had forgotten.

"I don't know," he says quietly. It seemed like the only answer that worked.

"You're sure?"

"I—I don't—" Peter's breath got quicker. Pepper must have really been gone. Why else would they ask him to look at items? Were all of these items they had taken from a morgue? He suddenly felt sick. "I don't know, I—"

"Peter Parker, please come with me." Another voice. Peter looks behind him and stands up. Another nurse takes him into a room.

Pepper lies in a bed, mask on her face. Her eyes are lidded, and her lips are a mix of white and purple. Peter heard every beat her heart made, each one sounding like a fight for life.

"Pepper," he says weakly. "Where were you? You promised you weren't going anywhere, you said—I—I thought—I thought you were dead, I—"

Pepper takes him into a weak half-hug. "'M okay," she murmurs.

"We're so sorry," the nurse speaks up. "Someone must have changed her record while she was in surgery."

"How is she?" Peter asked nervously.

"She lost a lot of blood, during surgery on her chest. Hopefully when she's stable enough we can operate on her leg."

"But she'll be okay, right?" Peter asks again.

No response.

"...We'll see how she's doing in a few hours."

The nurse leaves.

Peter has never been one to be particularly religious. He knew his mom was Jewish, and his dad didn't conform completely with any particular religion. He was raised without religion when he May and Ben took him in. That being said, he has prayed before.

He prayed when Ben went into the ambulance. He prayed when Tony was sitting in the remains of Avengers compound. He prayed when they sat in the tree. And he prayed now, when Pepper was laying in the hospital bed and holding Peter's hand in an attempt to non-verbally tell him everything was going to be okay.  
Neither of them knew if it was true, but they hoped. They hoped and they prayed.

"Peter?" Pepper breathes out. "How's my leg?"

Peter looked. It wasn't healthy looking at all, but he couldn't panic Pepper.

"Red," he says, looking back at her. "You're okay."

Pepper nods and closes her eyes, resting her head.

She was in deathly condition. It scared Peter to no end. He got up, leaving her to rest, and went up to one of the doctors. Pepper can't die on his watch. He can't do that to Morgan.

His thoughts tried to quip back, explaining the statistics of Morgan, Tony, Pepper and himself all still being alive. He shoved the thoughts away, no matter how much they hurt. He can't focus on that now.

"Excuse me, when are you operating? Her leg is looking really bad," Peter explains.

"We will operate as soon as possible," the doctor replies.

Peter nods and turns away, sighing. He just needed to wait. That's all he could do. He walks over to the water fountain, but something catches his eye along the way.

No. It couldn't be.

A man is frantically looking around, walking quickly and pushing is way through the crowd. His hair looks so familiar. His head turns just right, and Peter knows who he is.

"Tony..?" He says, his mouth catching up before his brain does. He drops the water cup. "TONY!"

Peter's too far away. He starts sprinting, trying to get to the bottom floor as fast as he can. He's dodging last hundreds of people, all filling the halls.

When he gets to the bottom floor, he can't see him. Peter thinks dreadfully that he must have imagined it.  
His breathing is quick as he looks around, but he still can't find him. 

"Tony!?"

Nothing.

"..Dad?" He asks tearfully.

He lets out a sob. Everything is to fast, and there's too many people. None of them are Tony. None of them are who he's been looking for.

Then—

"PETER!"

Peter looks up, his heart stopping. He looks around, but can't see anyone familiar.

"PETER!"

Peter looks around even more frantically. "MORGAN?" He shouts.

"PETER!" Morgan screams back, sprinting as fast as she could through the people.

"MORGAN!" Peter gasps, hugging her tightly. He sobs and pulls her hair behind her ear. "Morgan," he repeats.

“Peter—Peter, look!" Morgan points behind him.

Peter lets go of Morgan and slowly looks behind him.

"Peter?! Morgan?!" Tony's voice calls out, weaving his way through the crowds.

"DAD!" Peter shouts back, his eyes wide with tears. Tony's head shoots to look in his direction.

Tony runs to Peter and Morgan, and wraps his arms around them as tight as a father can.

There are moments where time just stops. Where everything pauses, and despite everything bad that has happened—things slow down to a point where those who are together don't need to understand to be at peace.

This is one of those moments, when the three of them are hugging each other, and all though they don't understand the full extent of the damage, they don't need to. They are together. And they are safe from the storm that wrecked their comfort.

"—Pepper is here," Peter breaks the silence.

"What?" Tony asks, looking up hopefully.

Peter nods and pulls away. "She's very weak. She says some weird stuff sometimes."

Peter starts walking up to Pepper's room.

Tony walks in, going up to the bed. He brushes Pepper's hair out of her face. "Hey, love. Hey."

Pepper looks at him with tearful eyes. "Is everyone okay?"

"Everyone's okay," Tony assures her.

"I'm dying," Pepper chokes out.

"No, it's okay. The doctors are going to take care of you. It's okay," Tony says, taking her hand. He kisses her forehead. "You're okay, dear."

"I'm gonna die," Pepper says again. A tear falls down her cheek.

"No." Tony says again. He looks at the doctor. "Can I take this off?"

The doctor nods and Tony looks back at Pepper. 

He gently takes off the oxygen mask and kisses Pepper. "You're going to be fine, love."

"Take care of my babies," Pepper says, more tears falling. Peter bites his lip at this to keep from crying himself.

"Hey, they're going to take care of you," Tony affirms again. "Don't worry."

A nurse walks in and speaks quietly to not disturb the moment. "She's ready for surgery."

"Tony, I'm scared," Pepper cries weakly.

"I know, love. It's okay. We're going to be okay. I love you." Tony squeezes her hand gently. "I love you, Virginia. It's okay. It's alright, Pep. It's going to be okay."

"I love you." Pepper says, just before the medicine kicks in and her eyes flutter closed. The nurses wheel her out of the room, and that is that.

When Pepper is wheeled out of surgery, they are immediately brought to an airport landing zone. Tony had called somebody to get them home, so Pepper was strapped into a medical bed in the private jet.

May is also on the jet, and when Peter sees her, they also hug tightly. May murmurs comforting words into his ear as she runs a hand through his hair. They're both tearful.

It seems a dull ending to such a story. Sitting on the plane, flying over the ocean, all in complete silence.

But to them, they're perfectly fine with dullness for a long time.

When it's safe to stand in the plane, Peter excuses himself from the seat and moves to the back, next to Pepper.

Tony is asleep with Morgan in the seat beside her, but Pepper is still very much awake. He sits next to her.

"Pepper, guess what?" He says softly. 

Pepper looks over at him. 

“I saw Lucas again. His dad was holding him. He was happy, Pepper."

Pepper smiles lightly at him. "I'm so proud of you."

Peter smiles back at her. He looks back at the window for a second and hesitates. "Pepper?"

"Mhm?"

"Do you think we'll be okay?"

"Yeah." Pepper gives him another smile. "It's all right."

And for the first time that day,  
he believed it.


End file.
